So You Want to Start a Series

Now that we've discussed the nature of serial poetry, some of you folks may want to try your hand at it. Understand that you don't necessarily have to be a poet to do this: crowdfunding and other collaborative practices mean that there are prompt calls where you can get someone else to do the writing for you. Look on my Serial Poetry page and you'll see that a couple of my small series were inspired by a single person: The Clockwork War by LiveJournal user viva_la_topknot and Glimpses of Minoa by LiveJournal user browngirl. Both of those also feature marginalized topics: disabled soldiers and an ancient culture. One person can make a difference. On that note, consider whether you want to make the major decisions alone or with an audience. You could probably have fun going through these steps with a discussion and poll for each stage, if you have lively readers already.I'll offer some suggestions for designing a good poetic series. You can take them or leave them; the only writing rule I've found essential to success is Thou Shalt Not Bore Thy Reader. As in cooking from a recipe, it is prudent to read through all the steps and make sure you have everything you need before starting. Then work through in order, although there are some places where you can safely skip around. Write down your decisions as you make them. This kind of thoughtful planning makes a series more coherent. You can, of course, just jump in without planning if you prefer to work by the seat of your pants.I'm also going to borrow another major tool from Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. This deals with the Six Steps of Creation. They are: 1) Idea/Purpose, 2) Form, 3) Idiom, 4) Structure, 5) Craft, and 6) Surface. In the book, McCloud describes how people often start at the end -- the surface. Don't do that; the results usually suck. I have no idea why that seems to be such a popular choice. Starting at or near the beginning produces much better material.Based on this week's host topic, we've already chosen a form: serial poetry. That's a good starting point. You might decide that this, itself, will be a key part of your purpose -- to explore what serial poetry can do. There's plenty of room because not a lot has been done with it yet, compared to other literary forms. You might further refine the selection of form by pinpointing a specific type of poetry -- sonnet cycle, ballad, free verse, etc. -- instead of mixing and matching forms within a series. You could even invent a new poetic form for your series. So far, this is basically pre-planning.I recommend that your first major step be 1) Idea/Purpose. What is your series about? What message do you want to convey with it? Writing without purpose tends to ring hollow, so find something you care deeply about and put it in the center. As mentioned above, 2) Form is a legitimate option for this, rather than a specific subject, but it still helps to have a clear focal topic. Whatever it is, make sure that you have something important to say. The more passionate you are about your work and its content, and the more meaningful your core concepts are, the more deeply you can move your audience. For a series, you need concepts big enough to support that kind of size, something that won't resolve in just a page or two. Flip through some of my series and you'll see ideas from me and my audience that touch on intense issues: love, sacrifice, survival, community, faith, history, politics, family, slavery, freedom, technology, discrimination, redemption, rivalry, service, ingenuity, fear, practicality, vision, sentience, morality, adoption, alchemy, etc. Those are themes. A thesis is what your work says about its theme, for example, "Perseverance means you keep trying to make the world a better place, even when it lies in ruins around you," as in my series Path of the Paladins. There are lots of places where you can find ideas for your writing. You might also browse a list of popular themes or social issues.Next, consider some of the questions we covered in the foundation article earlier. Do you want to write your whole series and then post it, or post it as you write it? Do you want to write it as a unit and then subdivide it, or write it in discrete segments? Do you want an open-ended or closed storyline? Do you prefer cliffhangers or conclusive episodes? How much continuity do you want? You don't have to answer all of these questions, but each one you do answer will help decide later aspects to match it. For instance, if you choose an open-ended plot, you will need some kind of plot device that will continue generating challenges indefinitely. These are issues of 3) Idiom and 4) Structure -- the literary school, genre, and compositional framing of the work. Such big fundamental questions are easier to handle at the beginning of a series than to figure out and work in later.After laying the foundation, move on to the components from our previous infrastructure discussion. Here are the main elements of literature: character, setting, plot, and flavor; who, where, what, and how. They deal with aspects of 4) Structure and 5) Craft. This is where your choices will be strongly influenced by the fact that you are designing a poetic series, not a stand-alone poem. You need to build with components that will catch and hold attention. You can develop these in any order; I'm presenting the one I use most often. If you know your personal linchpin in literature -- if you're more attracting to places, for instance -- then do that first. You can build a series based on any one of these, but if you take time to develop all of them carefully, the result will be a lot sturdier and more interesting.You need to create at least one character, the protagonist, for your series. If you wish, you can have a party of main characters, or some supporting characters, or a villain, or whomever else you want to add. The crucial factor is this: Choose characters that people will want to spend time with. In a series, you're basically moving in with these characters or going on a road trip with them. So if they're all boring, unsympathetic, annoying, and/or unbelievable then your readers will leave. Do your best to create compelling and plausible characters. Supporting characters may be simpler, but main characters should be detailed. Each one should have a goal, resources, strengths and weaknesses. This touches on plot, too, because each character's goal needs an obstacle -- which can be another character, the environment, or a situation -- keeping it out of easy reach. Not all characters have to be likable but they should all be entertaining; with villains, "love to hate" or "redeemable rascal" are worthy ideals. Build your characters from the ground up: their role in the story, the traits they need to fulfill it, then surface details such as name, physical appearance, dress mode, etc.You must provide a place for the action to happen -- a house, a road, a nation, a starship, whatever. The type of setting you choose influences what kind of stories can happen there; for instance, a road tends to involve traveling along it. Then you must distinguish your setting from all the others of that type: for example, each house has a specific arrangement of rooms with furniture and colors, often saying much about the residents. Describe the setting in ways that enrich the story. The key is this: Develop settings that people will enjoy exploring. When you begin the series, introduce the setting generally with just a few concrete details. Leave shadowy corners, closed drawers, or beckoning horizons that make your readers want to peek into them. Understand that a location can be gratifying either because it is familiar or because it is alien. Focus on details that people can relate to (the smell of rain, a warm bed) or that seem exotic (obscure foods, a foreign language). Do your homework to get the facts right.You have to lay out a plot for your series. Choose one that suits your interests, based on whatever elements you've already established. I find that the best plots flow from the unique confluence of characters and setting. Everyone has some kind of trouble they're bound to get into no matter how they try to avoid it; and all cultures come with flaws that aggravate their people. The vital point is: Pick a plot that will compel people to "strike the bell and bide the danger." Drag your readers into the action and make them curious about what happens next. In serial poetry, what you need to start is a challenge that can resolve in the first poem, which sets up some kind of ongoing action. Think of some things that could happen, or need to happen, and jot those down as points to aim for later in the series. There are different ways to plan the sequence of events; pick whatever works for you. Make sure the plot has good structure. Because you're launching a series: start, don't finish. Avoid painting yourself into a corner. Leave room to grow.Create some poetry! You need at least one poem to start, and a second to make this a series rather than a single poem. If you're new at this, you might want to read about how to write a poem. If you're outlining a series that you want someone else to write, now's the time to post prompts. Put together all the other stuff you've built up and tell the beginning of the tale. Get the character(s) moving in pursuit of a goal. Mention concrete details of the setting. Incorporate some poetic techniques to add charm and linguistic intensity. Don't worry too much about making everything perfect; just do your best. This deals with 5) Craft and 6) Surface. These aspects of the creative process are always in development. Writing a poetic series is an excellent way to practice them.Go back and revise the poetry. If you're writing poems yourself, it helps to have a first reader or beta reader to give you feedback before publishing your work. If you're providing prompts for someone else to write, then you take on the role of first reader, helping polish poems when you see the prompter copies. If you're sponsoring poems, then you're serving as editor, deciding what's worth buying -- especially important in a big series with a wider fanbase, and you never know when that will happen. In any case: spellcheck, proofread, analyze the continuity, and otherwise look for flaws. Fix them. This further refines the 6) Surface. You want it to look shiny and appealing.Release the poetry. In today's world, cyberspace is the most effective way to reach a lot of people quickly. You don't have to go through a magazine or book editor, and you can get feedback from your audience. (If you want to go the paper route, though, you can. A little of my serial poetry started that way, like Queen Choufa and the Rebel Drones, visible on my Serial Poetry page.) So the popular venues include blogs, social networks, forums, personal websites, and poetry archive sites. I publish my poems on my LiveJournal and Dreamwidth blogs, which echo links to my Facebook personal page; and the Serial Poetry guide page is on my personal website. Ideally, you want a venue that is legible and easy to navigate, with features for organization (such as tags) and feedback (polls, comments, like buttons, etc.). If this poetic serial is crowdfunded, put up a tip jar for it. Even if it's sponsored up front, this lets other fans chip in for stuff they like. You may encourage people to respond by including questions, posting a poll, or whatever. Audience feedback is useful for developing later poems in the series and for improving your craft as a poet and/or patron. The presentation of work to the public is, again, part of 6) Surface.Once you have a few installments published, it helps to create a landing page for your poetic series, with a project summary and a list of poems. Continue creating poems, incorporating new ideas as the series progresses. A good series tends to take on a life of its own, so don't try to push it around too much. Let it find its own way.What do you think is the most exciting thing about launching a poetic series? What would you like to see more of in serial poetry?

Companion Poem: "Starfather"

In the spirit of launching a new series, I've posted "Starfather" for the first time. It came out of the March 6, 2012 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from LJ user lilfluff about the willing sacrifices of adoptive parents.This is a science fiction series, whereas a majority of mine are fantasy. I'd like to diversify a bit more, but what turns into a series depends equally on what I write and what my audience picks. "Starfather" takes place in my main science fiction universe. The primary cultural background is Egyptian, based on the main character's home colony. From there, things get more hectic.

Further Reading

Aarne-Thompson Folktales Types and Motif Index -- for you overachievers, a massive collection framed in obscure scholarly terms, but an absolute gold mine of character, plot, and item tropes; the link goes to a summary page with simpler thumbnail phrases that are easier to use